John Hellen

The Man who was Angry with God

 

At our Thanksgiving Dinner at the men’s Shelter, we had an excellent turnout. The men were very responsive to our message of hope and very grateful for the love we showed them as God’s hand extended.

 

However, one of the men, we will call Henry, came over to talk to us. He related how his father suddenly died a few weeks ago, and how he now hated God, because if God is love, why would God take away the only person who had showed him love. He grew up in a large, dysfunctional family. His mother sexually abused him when he was young, and his siblings physically abused him. His father was the only one who he could depend on for love and support. His father was a man of God and took him to church every week. Henry had accepted Jesus as savior and attended church regularly, but now he was angry at God, and said he would never go to church again or follow God again.

 

We tried our best to minister to him, to comfort him, and to give him words of encouragement, reminding him that his father had told him “don’t blame God,” but it appeared that we were not getting through to his heart, or that his attitude would change. Then, things got even worse because he got into a heated argument with one of the residents, we will call Jesse, who, in the past, was a very violent and troublesome person. Jesse threatened to bust him up.

 

But then God turned what the enemy meant as harm to good.  One of the other residents who had been attending our Bible study meetings went over to Jesse and explained to him that Henry was acting in a hostile manner because he had just lost his father Jesse then melted and apologized to Henry. This was not the first time that one of the residents helped us to defuse a difficult situation. The seeds we plant at our bimonthly shelter meetings are bearing fruit amongst the men.

 

And a little later that day, Henry came over to us and said he wanted to come to church with us the next day. We promised one of us would take him to the church. He said, “don’t forget me.” We told him we would never forget him, and one of the team workers brought him to church. He went up to the altar with the worker, who introduced Henry to some of the members of our ministry for young men, which Henry now will be joining. And he also attended our church’s prayer service.

 

From this we see that we cannot judge things by the surface appearance. We were patient in the face of Henry’s initial resistance and did not give up on him, and God’s Holy Spirit did the rest. We had prayed for Henry after we had initially spoken to him, and God heard us from high on his Holy Hill.

 

Postscript: as we were leaving the shelter we ran into Jesse. He hugged us and asked us “when will you be coming back.” He now will be attending our meetings at the shelter.

 

God Provided Evidence that Faith is not in Vain

 

We visit a shelter for men with psychological and/or addiction problems. Nevertheless, through God’s help, many of these men have accepted Jesus, walked in the Spirit, and broken free of the chains that bound them.

 

God will make all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose, and He certainly orchestrated a series of amazing events that gave hope to the men.

 

At our last bi monthly visit, we were encouraging the men by giving them true examples of men who previously broken free of their chains, got out of the shelter, found jobs and now lived independently and productively. Suddenly, one of the men stood up to give his testimony. He stated that he had intended to sleep late that day and to not go to this meeting, but God would not let him sleep, as he had a message he felt compelled to tell the men. He said that he had to come down to tell the men that he had obtained a job and his own apartment, and that this would be his last day at the shelter. He told them to never give up hope. His words provided visible evidence of what we had just been saying to the men, and they were very encouraged. God sent him as a messenger of evidence of what we had been telling the men. At the end of the meeting we had an altar call, and all the men said the sinner’s prayer and accepted Jesus as Savior.

 

And at the meeting two weeks prior to the above meeting a very similar miracle occurred. One of our workers was delayed coming into the meeting because he ran into a former resident of the shelter. This man used to be a follower of Islam and had come to our meetings, but always was resistant to our message. However, over time, he did accept Jesus. He told our worker he now had a good job and his own apartment, and he praised God for that. So the worker then rushed over to the meeting to give this great testimony to the men, not knowing, that we had just finished telling them true stories of men who had broken free of the shelter system.

 

So, for two meetings in a row God sent a messenger to reinforce what we had just been relating to the men. We see here, powerful evidence that Romans 8:28 is absolutely true. All Glory and Honor to the Lord!

Today I went with a team from my church to a men’s shelter we visit twice every month.

 

The meeting was very anointed and successful. We prayed for the men and praised God. Then we sang some songs of hope with the men such as Victory is Mine and All the Way to Calvary.

 

Then we conducted a Bible Study on John 1 and 2. The men took turns reading the verses, and then we discussed the meaning of what was read, and how it applied to our lives and the lives of the men we were visiting. The men actively participated in the discussion. We discussed how if we believe in Jesus we will become children of God with the Holy Spirit as a deposit placed inside of us, and with the guarantee of eternal life in the presence of God. We discussed how Nazareth,  was a very small and insignificant town with a bad reputation, yet our Savior, Jesus, came from there. If something great can come from Nazareth, so can a great deal come from people who now are living in the men’s shelter if they accept Jesus and let the Lord transform them. And just like Jesus turned the water into the best wine, He can transform the men we visited from impurity into holiness. The Holy Spirit will transform them by producing the fruit of the Spirit in them: faith, love, patience, goodness, long-suffering, etc.

 

I gave my testimony about how I was saved after God miraculously healed 3 herniated discs in my neck, and one of the men said he also had the same 3 herniated discs as I had. One of my brothers in Christ gave them hope by testifying about how he once was a coke addict living in a shelter, but that he got saved, and then broke free of the chains that were binding him, and now is reaching out to the other prisoners (many people are prisoners in their mind). We then told the men how many prior residents of the shelter they live in were miraculously set free after being saved and after praying to God in faith and praise.

 

We then prayed for some of the men who wanted prayer, and had them fill out prayer cards which the Prayer Band at my church will pray over for 30 days.

 

Then we invited the men to accept Jesus as Savior by repenting of their sins and accepting him by faith, through the sinners’ prayer. Twelve of the 25 men present accepted Jesus as Savior. The Word of God has great power. Hallelujah, thank you Lord for your presence today at our meeting with the men.  

 

Not only was it so encouraging to see so many souls saved, but it was very heartening that every one of the men asked if they could keep the large print books of John we had handed out, and of course these books now belong to them, and we encouraged them to read the book during the 2 weeks before we come again, and to study the scriptures by meeting in small groups.

 

We then ended the meeting by serving the men a dinner of chicken and rice, salad, fruit drinks and wonderful cakes. We did what the sheep of Matthew 25 did. We gave the men food and drink, visited them in their loneliness, reached out to them with the Love of God, and planted the Word of God in their hearts.

 

Remember, we must be doers and not just sayers of the Word. Christians need to get up out of their seats at Church and join ministries to reach out to the multitudes who still are living in darkness, and not receiving the light.